Blizzard debuts 'Wrath of the Lich King' intro

by Justin McElroy { Aug 21st 2008 at 8:00AM }

Once you finally, finally install the Wrath of the Lich King onto your personal copy of World of Warcraft, what's the first thing you'll bear witness to (besides empty Mountain Dew cans and an empty, empty apartment)? Why, the above video, of course. For your viewing pleasure we present the opening cinematic from Blizzard's upcoming opus.

So, what's it like? C'mon dude, it's a new Blizzard cinematic, do you really want some tubby blogger spoiling it for you? Of course not. Now, get to clicking.

Tags: activision, blizzard, leipzig-08, world-of-warcraft, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paustinj @ Aug 21st 2008 8:08AM

That took my breath away, absolutely amazing.

Maverick Saturn @ Aug 21st 2008 8:17AM

*Waits patiently for Blizzard's three kick ass blockbuster acadamy and oscar winning movies to hit the cinema and change the way people see game movies forever*

Taco_Hell @ Aug 21st 2008 8:23AM

Actually...a Warcraft movie wouldn't be bad if done right.

Cal @ Aug 21st 2008 9:53AM

Actually... a Warcraft movie is in the works.

It's not CG though. :(

dark_inchworm @ Aug 21st 2008 9:53AM

@ Taco_Hell: A WoW movie is in the works as we speak. Haven't heard a thing about it since its announcement though...

dark_inchworm @ Aug 21st 2008 9:54AM

Beat to the punch, shucks.

phobic99 @ Aug 21st 2008 8:21AM

While I have absolutely no intention of buy this expansion pack (nor will I ever play WoW again), I do love the work that the Blizzard cinematic team puts out. Good stuff.

tooPrime @ Aug 21st 2008 8:26AM

Although this cinematic is obviously very good, it sort of makes me sad, reminding me how awesome Warcraft III was, yet how lame the plot of the expansion was because they tried to shoehorn a plot together to somehow justify the circumstances of World of Warcraft. I really like Warcraft, but WoW is not the way I'd like to experiences the "World of Warcraft". What are guilds going to kill Arthas? Really? Whenever they make Warcraft IV 25 years from now is the plot going to contain that Arthas was killed by a ragtag bunch of adventures with hot epic lewt?

Mr.ESC @ Aug 21st 2008 11:30AM

Well said also that's one reason why I don't want a Diablo MMO.

Yet you have to admit that defeating Arthas would be pretty awesome.

tooPrime @ Aug 21st 2008 1:29PM

Mr. ESC, although I could see people being down with killing Arthas, my issue is I like Arthas alot. The cool thing about the Warcraft III plot was they had that Kerrigan-like role reversal except emotionally it was much more impactful. I played 10 missions as this bad-ass paladin trying to stop the undead but he slowly went insane, then boom bam, I played 10 missions with badass death knight killing all the humans left. Speaking of great cinematic the end of the human campaign movie is one of the coolest I've every seen. Warcraft III had such a focus on heroes that Arthas was a huge part of my army for essentially half the game. So I thought they did a good job of building emotional attachments to Arthas that's why I like him some much.

Chris @ Aug 21st 2008 2:43PM

U cant kill Arthas!!! NO!!!!!

WhoMe @ Aug 21st 2008 6:43PM

If you like him so much, why don't you MARRY him?

Seriously though, get a life.

Haggard @ Aug 21st 2008 8:44AM

I've been thinking about getting WoW, since Guild Wars hasn't had any new content in months and wasn't really an MMO in the truest sense anyway.

This video went a little way towards convincing me that Blizzard are awesome.

zombienutz @ Aug 21st 2008 8:57AM

Damn. That was good. I love Blizzard, but I wish I was not board of WoW.

Habiib @ Aug 21st 2008 9:01AM

Where's the pandaran brewmaster?

AxelFury @ Aug 21st 2008 9:09AM

I think the Warhammer Online intro wins this round.

Psaakyrn @ Aug 21st 2008 9:41AM

I think the sandvich intro wins both. :p

5th hot meal @ Aug 21st 2008 9:49AM

got a link to the vid?

GuardedMarman @ Aug 21st 2008 9:59AM

Sandvich- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63-rGJsYAdY

Warhammer 2nd one- http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_cinematic_08.html

dark_inchworm @ Aug 21st 2008 9:59AM

The Blizzard team clearly has the lead on animation, though. More fluidity, more beauty. I think all the Warhammer vids I've seen so far rely a little too heavily on large-scale conquest and Warhammer humor - which isn't bad, granted, but I'm more impressed with the grandiose, theatrical Blizzard cinematics.

Zsavior @ Aug 21st 2008 10:41AM

Damn Warhammers joint actually made me want to dump wow and check it out. That was a really good cinematic.

Blazur @ Aug 21st 2008 9:09AM

Gotta hand it to Blizzard, their cinematic were always top notch.

Boffo the Sock @ Aug 21st 2008 9:36AM

Am I the only one who found that video kind of dull? It's just Arthas in a vast icy nowhere for 2/3 of the clip. The dragon was pretty neat, but I was still left with a feeling of "meh" at the end.

Zsavior @ Aug 21st 2008 11:19AM

Yup had that same feeling.

Bigkountry @ Aug 21st 2008 5:12PM

yup

Matt @ Aug 21st 2008 6:08PM

Yep. The other WOW intro videos at least focussed on the players. Here it's just some lore exposition about an emo evil guy and his army. Yawn.

As a player, how do I factor into that? Why should I care about this expansion, and how will I have fun?

The other videos showed that pretty well, this one didn't.

Nice CG, bad game pitch.

Psaakyrn @ Aug 21st 2008 9:40AM

Of cause, you've to ask whether Arthas is still "evil" in this regard. Granted he may have been corrupted by Ner'zul, but recall that Ner'zul was himself corrupted by the demons, in which he has for all intents and purposes freed himself from.

In all likelihood, they may throw in a "plot twist" where you've to work with the lich king in order to take the battle to the demons. Otherwise there's likely to be all sorts of lore confusion on why some death knights are fighting on our side.

Then again, you do have the lore confusion on Kael'thalas side, so it's possible they may just let this slide anyway.

Ihavepants @ Aug 21st 2008 10:11AM

NO NER'ZUL, YOU ARE THE DEMONS!

arrrgh @ Aug 21st 2008 10:04AM

if only the game looked even remotely that good

Mazz @ Aug 21st 2008 10:15AM

The Warhammer video blows this away.

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_cinematic_08.html

Why didn't Joystiq post it? It makes no sense.

Blazur @ Aug 21st 2008 10:52AM

Holy crap, you're not kidding! What a mind-blowingly awesome video that was...

Mr.ESC @ Aug 21st 2008 12:01PM

Very close.

When is Warhammer Online going to be released?

wickedpheonix @ Aug 21st 2008 10:21AM

OMG that video totally makes me want to fight for Arthas. Good job Blizzard, and seriously just get your cinematic team working on an actual film, more of that and they'll be winning Oscars in no time. A lot of well implied emotions.

Chris @ Aug 21st 2008 9:42PM

This vid actually makes me pissed that I cant be the scourge....Who doesn't want Arthus as a leader....Look at him he's the shit! And that Death Knight Armor he's wearing is AWESOME!

Chris @ Aug 21st 2008 9:44PM

Actually that vid makes me pissed that I can't be the scourge....Who doesnt want Arthus as a leader....And that Death Knight Armor is SICK

Duke @ Aug 21st 2008 10:26AM

Hold on, wait a second! Is this guy fighting for or against Sauron?

Ihavepants @ Aug 21st 2008 8:06PM

?????

Einhanderkiller @ Aug 21st 2008 10:29AM

*jizz*

Bigfoot @ Aug 21st 2008 10:35AM

Both WoW and WAR trailers look amazing. I do think that WAR's trailer should get it's own post though..

KevinD @ Aug 21st 2008 10:36AM

/yawn... Seriously.. its 80% snow, then a little cinema..

Got a lvl 70, 6/8 Tier 6, Seasons 2-3 PVP gear and I dont play anymore... Its now boring...

I think THINKING about playing is more exciting than sitting there doing dailies to get gold...

Once you've done Hyjal, BT and are in sunwell, its super boring... this group go there when Felmyst goes south, then everyone run to tree after flames etc etc.. Just memorize some crap and you're good to go.

Heck PVP is ok, but so skewed its gotten out of hand also...

Leveling and the thought of getting to 70 was the draw, now its just drudgery.

Anyways, nice cinematics... If ONLY their games looked as nice when actually playing them... Now THAT would be cool..